Parliament wants shake-up of Union’s budget control

A shake-up of the Union’s financial control system is recommended in a European Parliament report. Under proposals discussed this week, the finance minister of each member state would have to give annual assurances that EU funds are being used correctly in his or her country.

European Voice

2/2/05, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 11:04 AM CET

Discussed in the assembly’s budgetary control committee on 1 February, the paper urges the European Commission to publish a blueprint for more rigorous checks on the EU’s €100 billion yearly budget by October. Once introduced, the suggested system would require finance ministers to declare that proper controls are in place to handle any EU funds allocated to them and to remedy any shortcomings identified in the previous financial year. Penalties – including funding cuts – could be imposed by the Commission if the controls are found to be lax.

The report, drafted by British Socialist MEP Terry Wynn, warns that unless this system is mapped out and implemented as a priority, the Parliament will not

give its blessing to the EU’s spending plans for 2007-13, known as the financial perspectives.

Wynn argues that this innovation is needed to resolve the problem and that there is no guarantee of adequate supervision for how EU funds are spent at national level.

Wynn’s report focuses on issues arising during the 2003 financial year. While he urges the Parliament to approve the accounts for that year, he describes ongoing problems with farm expenditure as “unreasonable”. More than €1bn in “irregular” agricultural payments has never been recovered in 1971-2004, he notes, accusing both the Commission and EU governments of showing a “lack of due diligence” in clawing back the sums involved.

German journalist Hans-Martin Tillack suffered a defeat on 1 February in a legal challenge he had mounted against the Commission’s anti-fraud office (OLAF).

Tillack had sued the former Commission budget spokesman Joachim Gross over alleging that he paid bribes to obtain an OLAF document. According to Tillack, Gross made the accusation to chief OLAF press officer Alessandro Butticé in 2002, triggering an investigation that led to the journalist’s arrest last year.

In September 2004, a state court in Hamburg, where Stern is published, ordered that Gross should not repeat the allegation. Yet this week that ruling

was overturned on appeal, on the grounds that EU officials have immunity from prosecution.